Love The Way You Lie

Try to imagine a person who is insensitive, lacks remorse and is completely alright with doing the morally incorrect thing. This individual constantly demands attention and appreciation, wants to be looked up to and hence, simply expects to be handed favours. Ironically, this person is extremely cynical of others, while using deception, exploitation and flattery to gratify their own wants. How do you think you would feel about such a person? You would naturally dislike them, right? What if I told you that you actually love them?

The person I just described represents some of our favourite, and often idolized movie villains including Joker in The Dark Knight, Pablo Escobar in Narcos, Alauddin Khalji in Padmavat, Shah Rukh Khan in Don and Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. Taking a recent example, anyone who has seen Money Heist would be lying if they said they didn’t adore at least one (mostly likely, multiple) of the thieves on the show. Somehow, the qualities we expect to consciously hate, are the ones that we unconsciously revere.

These qualities are a part of what is called The Dirty Dozen, a set of 12 traits used to identify a villainous personality, which is a charming mix of Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Narcissism, named after a character from greek mythology who fell in love with his own reflection (Narcissus), refers to a grandiose self-view along with a sense of dominance and entitlement. Psychopathy refers to callousness, a lack of empathy, and antisocial and erratic behaviour. This trait is often associated with a deceptively charming and sexually exploitative interpersonal style. Lastly, Machiavellianism refers to the use of manipulative behaviour as a means to an end, accompanied by a cynical attitude. Together, these are called the Dark Triad.

When I initially described to you an individual with Dark Triad qualities, whom did you picture in your head? If you thought of a man, your belief stems from the societal perception of these traits being inherently masculine, or in other words “not lady-like”. In fact, this gender bias plays such a significant role that dark triad male characters are viewed as more appealing and less troublesome than dark triad females. On the other hand, female non-dark triad characters are viewed more positively than their male counterparts. In modern day lingo, this can be correlated to an attraction for ‘bad boys’ but at the same time, a preference for ‘hard to get’ women.

If you’re wondering whether attraction towards villains is a result of people being unaware of their qualities, that is usually not the case. In a study, women rated men with dark triad traits being significantly more attractive despite rating them as less conscientious, less agreeable and more neurotic than their non-dark triad counterparts.

Why is it then, that we are drawn to these obviously problematic individuals? One explanation for this, given by Kausse and Rucker, is that fictional characters provide us with a safe place to address our own darker selves. Data from an online platform CharacTour, which analyses fictional characters against a user’s personality using quizzes, was used to test this hypothesis. Results indicated that users were most likely to be attracted to villains that they were similar to, such as Maleficent or Darth Vader, rather than those they differed from. A follow up study also found that comparison to a real life villain was significantly more uncomfortable than a fictional villain. For example, being compared to Hitler would be a lot more uncomfortable than being compared to Voldemort, despite their ideologies being shockingly similar. This further supports the initial assumption that fiction creates a safety net for the expression of our unconscious desires while preventing it from affecting our positive self-perception.

Another explanation for this is the Halo Effect, a psychological phenomenon which leads us to believe that physically attractive individuals possess positive traits. In other words, we tend to ignore negative qualities of people who we believe are attractive, or good looking. A great example of this is the immense love received by Ted Bundy - a non-fictional notorious serial killer who abducted, assaulted and murdered many young women and girls - soon after he was played by Zac Efron in the movie ‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile’.

It wasn’t long after the trailer dropped for Zac Efron’s upcoming Ted Bundy biopic that the inevitable happened: people began thirsting over the serial killer with shiny hair, piercing blue eyes, and a captivating wink. - In Style, 2019

And now, the explanation that made my not-so-blue eyes widen - we love villains because they make us feel afraid and anxious. Turns out, these feelings, which are actually negative in nature, play a vital role in non-sexual arousal. Both fear and attraction cause our brain to release the same three hormones- adrenaline, endorphins and dopamine. This leads to what is called the misattribution of arousal. In easier words, when these hormones are released, our brain gets confused as to whether they are a result of fear or attraction. Therefore, instead of realising that they are fear-induced due to the actions of the villain, we misattribute them to attraction for the villain themselves. Stockholm Syndrome, which involves hostages or abuse victims bonding with their captors or abusers, is an extreme example of this phenomenon.

Lastly, villains today are psychologically very rich - they have a cause behind their evil motives which makes them grey characters, or ‘anti-heroes’. An anti-hero is a protagonist who lacks heroic qualities and is deeply flawed. Despite this, he/she tends to follow a moral code of some kind. A great example of this is Joe Goldberg, the lead character of a Netflix series called ‘You’ who is a stalker and murderer who was emotionally neglected as a child by his mother (if you thought ‘aw’, so did girls around the world). Another great example of an anti-hero is Kabir from the movie Kabir Singh, a protagonist who displayed high levels of toxic masculinity under the premise of heartbreak.

Unfortunately, this ‘aw’ quickly turns into an ‘aagh’ if these fictional characters come to life. In 2009, a South Vermillion High School student assaulted her teacher and carved a smile similar to Joker’s (from The Dark Knight) across her face. In 2006, Dipti Sarna was kidnapped by a stalker who was inspired by Shah Rukh Khan’s movie Darr. In 2007, the mastermind behind the Chelembra Bank robbery confessed to having been inspired by the Dhoom series. There are many cases similar to these which require production houses to acknowledge the real-world implications of glamorising a villain on screen. Casting someone as loved as Zac Efron to play Ted Bundy often sets a wrong standard and leads to normalising toxic behaviour.

That being said, the above cases are rare and more often than not, attraction towards a villain is innocent. In fact, to the relief of people like me who constantly find themselves rooting for the dark character, attraction to villains is normal and does not make you a bad person! The next time you’re watching a movie or a show, and catch yourself falling for the bad guy, take a step back and try to spot the 12 traits we spoke just about! You’ll be surprised by the things your mind condones.